Grant Lichtman..."Schools need to teach students to be self-evolving, so they can adapt to change as it comes.That means that schools need to become self-evolving institutions themselves, embracing change and preparing kids for their future, not looking back at the past. His challenge to all educators: stop talking about it; start doing it."

We want our kids to be lifelong learners, to think more deeply about what they are learning in school, and to make connections to their own experiences. We want them to be engaged beyond the classroom, and it can happen with a short message.

I use Remind for things like returning signed forms or announcing a quiz, but the most important way I use the app is to prepare students for lessons by kindling thought the night before.

In its basic and simplest definition, blended learning is an instructional methodology, a teaching and learning approach that combines face-to-face classroom methods with computer mediated activities to deliver instruction. The strengths of this instructional approach is its combination of both face to face and online teaching methods into one integrated instructional approach.

Blended Learning is a big concept, an umbrella term, that contains several other sub-methods. Below are the four models that are most used in schools today.The definitions together with the accompanying videos featured here are taken from Blended Learning 101 course. This course is offered by Khan Academy ( one of the leading protagonists of blended learning approach) in partnership with the Clayton Christensen Institute and the Silicon Schools Fund.

From Quest to Learn in New York to the Liger Learning Center in Cambodia, Matthew Jenkin explores schools that use innovative teaching methods and curriculums

On 21 October 2015, we will finally arrive at the point in time that Marty McFly travels to in the 1989 sci-fi sequel, Back to the Future II. But if a teenager today were to drive Doc Brown’s DeLorean back to Hill Valley High, the film hero’s fictional school, would he or she notice any difference?

Just as we are still waiting for someone to market hoverboards and self-tying shoelaces, we have yet to see a radical shift in teaching models, despite the ebb and flow of education reforms. There are schools, however, that are breaking the mould and daring to free teachers from the shackles of curriculum dictates. They are giving students and educators the power to become masters of their own learning.

John Hattie developed a way of ranking various influences in different meta-analyses according to their effect sizes. In his ground-breaking study “Visible Learning” he ranked those influences which are related to learning outcomes from very positive effects to very negative effects on student achievement. Hattie found that the average effect size of all the interventions he studied was 0.40. Therefore he decided to judge the success of influences relative to this ‘hinge point’, in order to find an answer to the question “What works best in education?”

Hattie studied six areas that contribute to learning: the student, the home, the school, the curricula, the teacher, and teaching and learning approaches. But Hattie did not merely provide a list of the relative effects of the different influences on student achievement. He also tells the story underlying the data. He found that the key to making a difference was making teaching and learning visible. He further explained this story in his book “Visible learning for teachers“.

Here is an overview of the Hattie effect size list that contains 138 influences and effect sizes across all areas related to student achievement. The list visualized here is related to Hattie (2009) Visible Learning. Hattie constantly updates this list with more meta studies. You can find an updated version in Hattie (2011) Visible Learning for Teachers.

Students love it when teachers provide class notes—the more complete the set, the better. Students want the teacher’s notes online because it’s convenient, they’re readable, well organized, and relieve the student of having to expend much effort during class. A lot of students need the teacher’s notes because they aren’t very good note-takers themselves. They practice stenography rather than note-taking, trying to get down the teacher’s words exactly. That way, even if they don’t understand, they can memorize what the teacher said and find it on the test. But that’s not learning.

For almost 50 years, Tony Bates has been a consistent, persistent and influential voice for the reform of teaching and learning in post-secondary education, notably through the effective use of emerging technologies. Author of 11 books and 350 research papers in the field of online learning and distance education, Tony Bates is also an advisor to over 40 organizations in 25 countries, and publisher of what is arguably the most influential blog on online learning with over 20,000 visits a month. A Contact North | Contact Nord Research Associate, Dr. Bates has helped educators, academic administrators and policy makers grasp key concepts, trends and challenges in online learning. This posting is one of a series that looks at Tony’s perspectives and advice on key issues in online learning.

Like pretty much everyone else in the field I've been immensely enjoying Tony Bates's work-in-progress, an online open textbook called Teaching in a Digital Age.

Having said that, I think my perspective is very different from his, and this summary post offers me an opportunity to highlight some of those differences. So in what follows, the key points (in italics) are his, while the text that follows is my discussion.

So what’s a teacher to do? If you plan lessons that involve students using online programs and apps, you’re likely to hit the campus firewall or possibly even risk compromising your students’ privacy. Yet, if you keep your lessons offline, you know you’re missing a huge opportunity to engage students by using technology in meaningful, real-world ways. Well, never fear, because we’ve got all of the answers you seek. Follow these steps to get your class online and using popular apps, without worrying about keeping student data private.

According to the renowned American educator, Malcolm Knowles there are 5 assumptions concerning the characteristics of adult learners, and 4 principles concerning adult learning (andragogy). Despite the fact that Knowles' adult learning theory assumptions and principles were introduced in the 1980's, each can be utilized today to help eLearning professionals create more meaningful learning experiences for adult learners.

Despite the fact that Knowles' adult learning theory assumptions and principles were introduced in the 1980's, each can be utilized today to help eLearning professionals create more meaningful learning experiences for adult learners.

During the summer holidays we stumbled upon a great video made by Cheryl Reynolds, a senior lecturer at the University of Huddersfield. She has put together John Hattie’s eight mind frames in a very nice and fun video scribe animation. This is a great inspiration for all teachers who want to know and improve their impact on student learning. Watch the video and spread the message!

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